Goleta Water Moratorium May End as City Looks to Rezone for Lower-Income Housing

The Goleta City Council faced a dilemma on Thursday evening that was leavened by a letter from the Goleta Water District stating that the moratorium on new water hookups was likely to end this year. In a joint meeting with the city’s Planning Commission, the council was examining where to add zoning for apartment buildings within existing neighborhoods and along the Hollister Avenue viewshed. With 17 sites up for debate by the councilmembers, commissioners, landowners, and members of the public attending the workshop, at 11 p.m. the meeting was continued to Tuesday, July 25, at 5:30 p.m.

The possibility of an end to the nine-year water moratorium in Goleta is spurring developer interest, according to city staff. Rain delivered by this winter’s storms put the Water District within spitting distance of a couple conditions of the Safe Water Supplies Ordinance of 1991 that allowed new water connections: when deliveries from Cachuma reached 100 percent of the allocation and when enough new groundwater formed a buffer against drought. The Goleta Water District, which is a separate political entity from the city, wrote that water from Cachuma was restored and groundwater storage was due to reach the drought buffer some time this year.

Goleta planning staff confessed to being relieved to receive the water news, as the moratorium was among the city’s issues in giving the state certainty that its proposed rezones for housing were feasible. Every eight years, California’s Housing and Community Development department sets out quotas requiring additional zoning for residences of varying income levels. This cycle, the sixth, doubled Goleta’s previous requirement, and the state’s scrutiny of cities’ Housing Elements had intensified statewide. Goleta’s housing allocation in the 5th Cycle was 979 units; it is 1,837 in the Sixth.

The state Housing and Community Development (HCD) department’s most recent letter to Goleta caused city staff to reduce its lower-income total in the city’s draft Housing Element by 637 units, planning staffers Anne Wells and Andy Newkirk explained on Thursday. In the 5th Cycle, the lower-income requirement was 392 units; in the 6th, it is 1,006.

Because of the water moratorium, Goleta had few examples of largely vacant parcels with one building on it that had later been developed into residential homes or apartments — a category called “nonvacant underutilized.” The city, however, had relied on its “nonvacant underutilized” parcels for much of the new residential zoning in its 6th Cycle Housing Element, especially for the lower-income residential category.

Though the state requires the city to zone for residential, not to build it, HCD’s harder scrutiny included a desire to hear about buy-in from landowners to build on these nonvacant underutilized sites proposed for rezoning. Would the housing actually get built? The updated Housing Element draft has that buy-in, staff stated, as did landowners and their representatives who spoke at City Hall on Thursday evening.

In particular, Ben Romo appeared for Yardi Systems, which plans to turn its roughly 100,000-square-foot office building at 490 South Fairview Avenue into workforce and lower-income housing. “Housing is what the community needs the most,” Romo said, noting the “severe jobs/housing imbalance that prices so many people out of our community.” Romo said Yardi intended to create studios and one- and two-bedroom rentals, as well as retain large trees and parking, and add green space and a childcare center. “In pursuing residential, Yardi would prioritize community benefit over profit,” Romo stated.

All things being equal, the project could contain 99 units each of moderate and above-moderate apartments, but additional units are granted in high-density residential zoning, which would bring the total to 249, Romo told the Independent, What’s more, Yardi plans to deed-restrict 24 percent of the total for lower-income residents, which under the state’s density bonus rule, results in a potential 374 units. Adding childcare adds another six units, for a total of 380. And, Yardi intends to deed-restrict 25 units for moderate-income residents: “That’s gravy!” Romo exclaimed, saying it benefited the landowner not at all and was added simply for the need.

[Click to enlarge]

The Yardi project was praised by all for its walking distance to Old Town, public transit, and philanthropic leanings, though former city councilmember Michael Bennett reminded of the deep flooding that traditionally comes from the nearby Goleta Slough during rainstorms. That level of discussion would occur when the project came to the Planning Commission, staff said.

As the night progressed, the need to complete the rezoning exercise and leave the details for when the project came before a city decision-maker arose repeatedly. Neighbors and activists objected to issues regarding traffic, neighborhood incompatibility, lost viewsheds, and environmentally sensitive habitat at the parcels. As well, landowners, the Chamber of Commerce, friends, colleagues, and private planners delivered affirmations for the various zoning changes.

Planning Commissioner Katie Maynard reminded that the issues raised would not be heard by the commission or the council if the city’s Housing Element were not certified by the state. Otherwise, “We have very little ability to do … what’s needed to meet housing goals and what’s needed to maintain local control,” she said. “If [the projects] don’t come to the Planning Commission or the City Council, we don’t get to talk about any of these things.”

Councilmember Luz Reyes-Martín agreed, saying, “We need to get to certification in order to preserve as much local control as we can, given the state legislation and the threats or ramifications if we don’t.”

A word of caution about the numbers came from Gelare Macon, a land-use planner and project manager with Flowers & Associates, about the concept of “affordable by design.” In the case of high-density zoning, lower-income units are expected due to their inevitably smaller square footage. Macon confirmed landowners’ development interest for several projects, one of them 35 Ellwood Station Road, a long narrow strip beside the railroad tracks. The owner of the parcel, currently used as outdoor storage, was happy for a rezone to high-density residential, Macon asserted, but was not committed to an entirely lower-income housing project. The landowner was thinking more of the city’s inclusionary policy of 20 percent affordable, she said, warning that the city needed to be aware of that as it calculated its numbers for the Housing Element.

The point of Thursday’s exercise was to get to sufficient lower-income residential zoning, including a 15 percent buffer for future shortfalls, as Macon had described, as well as spread the new housing evenly around the city. After five hours of discussion, the 10 candidate sites were okayed in nonbinding straw votes by the council and commission, amounting to 838 lower-income units and a 17 percent buffer, said Wells.

About a half-dozen alternative sites will be on the agenda and also possible horse-trading over the number of units created by high-density zoning versus the city’s 20 percent inclusionary requirement. If Thursday is any example, a lively discussion is sure to ensue on Tuesday evening.

Clarification: Though State Water passes through Cachuma, it is the full Cachuma allocation that is one of the requirements to allow Goleta Water District to resume issuing new water permits.